17 Fin? (EN)
The whole month of June was quite turbulent, so this entry is a bit fragmented. I tried to blog a bit during the journey from Berlin to Vilsbiburg, but didn't manage to complete the blog entry. It will be continued, this time from Bologna/Florence.
I'm sitting around at the train station in Landshut. In Landshut! Lower Bavaria! Just 20 kilometres away from Leberskirchen! Wow. I still can't quite believe that during the last two weeks I have slowly but steadily made my way from Tampere to Turku, across the Baltic Sea to Stockholm, then through Sweden and then zigzagged across Germany in the direction of "dahoam" (Bavarian for "home"). Accompanied by an untypical amount of unnecessary luggage from Finland, which I simply didn't need anymore during the last two weeks - winter clothes, bed linen... I cursed and insulted Red Henry several times, that's for sure. For context: The red Heinrich is my suitcase, namesake Carina aka Bärchen. Quasi a stubborn, reactionary & ponderous old white cis man incarnate as a suitcase. A rather questionable travel companion in terms of back health and mental balance. So where have Red Henry and I been since we crossed the Almang border last Monday, and what have we experienced?
Station 1: Ja moin! Visit to Krischtl, Kalil and Steffi in Hamburg
Have I ever mentioned that a large part of my travels revolves around Kristina, Pauline or Mathilde? Somehow we are already a kind of mobile sisterhood. This time it was Kristina's turn, after she had already visited me in Finland over Easter. (In three weeks, by the way, Mathilde and hopefully very soon Pauline again, as soon as she is back in Europe - Bacioni to Brazil! <3) Kristina had arranged her meticulously planned work schedule so that she could be in Hamburg and picked me up at the station together with Kalil - which I didn't know about until shortly before my arrival in Hamburg! It was a great start to my first ever visit to Hamburg. And I have to say: I fell in love with the city instantly. The green spaces, the proximity to the water, the relaxed, friendly nature of the people, the feeling of not being in a big city at all, although you are actually in one, the broad cultural scene... On my first day in Hamburg, Kalil (Kristina was covered with work) took time to show me the most beautiful corners of the city, and something clicked between me and Hamburg right away. At the same time, I had this strange feeling that I wasn't really there yet mentally. During those days in Hamburg, I still felt like a stranger, as if I hadn't even arrived in Germany yet. I was constantly confused by the fact that the people around me were speaking German again, that I no longer had to constantly translate menus, signs, etc., and that I no longer had to speak English to cope with my everyday life.
(At this point I had to interrupt the entry because my laptop battery was empty)
Continued: 23.06.2023, Bologna Centrale train station
During my trip, however, I was not only on holiday and visiting friends, but also had to prepare exams (the reason why I'm typing these lines from Italy right now) and had a few online application interviews for working student jobs. Successfully, by the way, more about that later. Hamburg was cool, anyway. It was even cooler to go shopping in an Arab supermarket again, and to cook Israeli food at Kalil and Kristina's flat in the evening. I love how diverse the food in Germany has become in recent years thanks to migration! I spent a lot of time by the water in Hamburg, but also with Steffi in the university library, as we are both at different stages of the Master's thesis - I am still in the early stages, she is in the final spurt. I definitely now how to master work-life balance ;) In any case, I really liked the city and the relaxed, friendly people of Hamburg, and I can definitely imagine spending a short period of my life there. In any case, it wasn't my last visit!
Station 2: Bärchenzeit in Bonn
Those of you who have known me for a while know that Carina, or rather Bärchen, enriched and shaped a significant part of my Bachelor time in good ol' Passau. We went through our first flat-sharing experience together, drowned our Quietschie (Passau slang for first-semester students) struggles and generally every little problem in visits to dm (a very amazing German drugstore chain), and have thus built up a beautiful, inspiring and deep Bärchen bond over the years, which has also coped with Carina's move away from Passau and my permanent mobility. Bonn, Carina's new Bärchen domicile since 2018, has therefore already been visited by me a few times, and each time it was a lovely, fun and relaxed time. What I like about friendships like the one with Carina is that you don't become strangers to each other - even if you don't hear much from each other for a long time. As soon as you see each other again, the switch is flipped and everything flows naturally. We are just a Bärchen-strong team. The stop at Carina's in Bonn was therefore a great opportunity to recharge my batteries and mentally prepare myself for the return to Bavaria. Thank you for that <3
Station 3: Eberswalde/Berlin
Berlin has been a buzzword for me all along - I've only been to Berlin once before, when I was 16, on a school trip. Since Berlin is THE city for all those who like to be "alternative" (and thus all the same again, paradox, no?), I was ultra curious about the stop here. In the end, things turned out the way they tend to when I'm on the road: It was completely different. I didn't stay in Berlin, but in Eberswalde, with Maria, a friend I met through my former Casa Poggi flatmate Lily. Maria had already been busy promoting Eberswalde, promising pure nature and easy-going people, and what can I say: she was 1000% right. Eberswalde was awesome! A small town with a university for sustainable development, a wonderfully relaxed, leftist-green student bubble, lots of forest, lots of water, East German nudist culture while swimming (totally my thing :D)... Maria lives a bit outside of Eberswalde, in the middle of the countryside, and we spent our days cycling through the area to visit, for example, a small beer brewery (yay), beautiful spots in nature, reading sessions by the river, pizza parties in the countryside, a yoga class at a friend of Maria's in a yurt, and on and on. Eberswalde is like a parallel universe, where everything works in a relaxed way. Which was largely due to Maria's easy-going manner. :) As during the whole trip, it was once again the people who made every place special for me - the salt in the soup. On my last day before departure, I literally had to force myself to drive into Berlin to go exploring there as well. Of course, one day is not enough to get a hang of Berlin, but the Kulturkaufhaus, Mustafa's Gemüsekebap, the Victoriapark, the Bergmannkiez and Iced Coffee on the Spree were definitely enough to make my heart beat faster. Berlin is nice, but would be a bit too hectic for me in the long run. Hamburg is more like it when it comes to cities beyond the Weißwurscht equator.
Final? Leberskirchen
To be honest, I didn't feel ready to return until the last day. When is one ever? I have been increasingly preoccupied over the last few months with the question of where I belong. I need a place again where I can settle down, which gives me a foothold, but still doesn't let me stagnate. For me, Leberskirchen is a place where I like to come back again and again, where I can recharge my batteries, where I can let my soul dangle, because I know that no one is going anywhere there, and everything remains largely the same. Sure, the village and its people change, but all within the framework of a pleasant predictability. Nothing surprises me in Leberskirchen, the place where I grew up, where I can walk blindly through the surrounding woods and meadows, cycle to hidden bathing spots on the Vils on warm summer nights, speak dialect without concessions, go to beerfests and the like in the surrounding area with my friends, all wearing our dirndls. In winter I hang out for hours on the couch with Paul the cat and a book, usually borrowed from my neighbour Ingrid, and vegetate in my brother's living room after all-nighters with him. It's nice that I'm still a Lower Bavarian village child, but in recent years I've encountered so many more facets of my personality that I can't live out in the village. Not because I'm afraid of condemnation, because I couldn't care less what other people think of me. But when I'm there for a longer time, I increasingly crawl into this comfort zone that the village offers me, curl up and close my eyes. And I don't want to do that, because it would mean no longer being able to see what's going on in the life I've built up over the last few years through study and travel. My arrival in Leberskirchen was super nice. On the very second day, I went to a beer fest with friends, went on a day trip to hike in the Chiemgau Alps, had coffee on my parents' terrace in the morning, cooked with herbs (and soon vegetables) from my mum's garden for lunch, helped water the garden in the evening, and well, the Vils. The basic recipe for a summer in Lower Bavaria, of course with lots of little details that add even more gentle spice. Leberskirchen is my favourite stopover in the world, but even before I returned, it was clear to me that I needed my independence. Since 2016, I have become far too accustomed to living in shared flats with other young people with whom I can exchange ideas and get new inputs, to organising my everyday life according to my rhythm and to organising everything myself. So it quickly became clear to me: I need a job and a room in a shared flat or a simple flat. I have now found both a job and a room for myself, which is why I'm moving to Kufstein at the beginning of July and commuting from there to Munich twice a week for my new working student job at Fraunhofer, while I write my Master's thesis at the same time. Of course I don't know yet how long I'll stay in Kufstein, where I'll end up sooner or later, but I'm really looking forward to a summer in the mountains with Lisa, Lugge & Co in the Hütten-WG. <3
Continued in the evening, Florence.
Coming full circle: Ravenna
I actually spent the last few days under the Italian sun in Ravenna again (finally without red Heinrich, instead with my beloved deuter hand luggage backpack and Vietnamese dong dong bag as usual), because I still had to pass the last two exams of my Masters. With the result that I'm taking one of them again in September, because I honestly underestimated the exam and had focused my preparation on the other exam with more ECTS. Well, it happens, so I'll go to Ravenna again in September. Anyway, I spent the last four days in the place where the whole adventure started a year ago. I saw again not all, but many of the people who made my life in Ravenna what it was, and still is. This familiarity with which I walk through the streets of Ravenna cannot be taken away from me in a hurry, just as something inside me blossoms when I hear someone speaking Italian or speak Italian myself. And this feeling intensified even more when I was able to embrace my ragazze again, i.e. Bashka, Dalia, Laura and Lily, and when I entered my former shared apartment, Casa Poggi, for the first time in a year. On the one hand, it feels like I've never been away from Ravenna, like the last few months have passed in the blink of an eye, and at the same time, in the meantime, numerous people have moved away, moved in, travelled, are looking for work, are already working, or have otherwise changed the face of the city in some small way. Ravenna is not my future, but in a way it is still my present. And Bologna, too, in a way. The city has become my hub, the visit to Caffè VyTa in Bologna Centrale my ritual before going to Ravenna, Vilsbiburg or visiting other friends in Italy, like today to Florence. I don't see myself staying in Italy for a long time, but I can't imagine my life without it. It is both a privilege and a crux to have so many homes. They fill me and empty me at the same time, they tear at me and put me back together again. Homes catapult experiences into my life that I never expected, make me cry when I say goodbye and tremble with joy when I return. The last few years have given me many homes. And these homes are not places, but people. Finding a geographical home is therefore all the more difficult. It will probably take a thousand arms to hold me. But time will tell.
I had a lot of fun writing down my little stories, anecdotes, thoughts and feelings. Sometimes talking nonsense here, then being serious or cheesy again. Tinkering with blog projects has been a hobby of mine for years, so maybe I'll come up with a format soon where I can continue all this, beyond the adventure of the last few months. I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing. Thank you so much for following the blog, whether you read every article or just stopped by sporadically. In doing so, you have also walked part of the way with me. And of course thanks to all the great people who were "really" there during the last months, from Nepal to Cambodia, Thailand, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Sweden and finally Italy. And thanks, of course, to those who have known for a long time what a wanderer I am, namely my friends and family, who have always been there to support me, even from afar. A lot of amore goes out! <3
Bacioni,
Vronal
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